The present invention relates to vehicle body retractable tops, and more particularly, to vehicle body retractable roof top panels and cooperating sunshade panels that translate between normal and storage positions.
Various convertible car tops of both the hard and collapsible fabric type are well known in the automobile industry. A major disadvantage of the fabric convertible top is that it can be easily torn. It also gives the car a noisier ride and is much more subject to sun and other weather-related damage than a hard top. Convertible hard tops tend to have complicated and cumbersome constructions. Recently sun roofs have enjoyed considerable commercial success because they offer an inexpensive alternative to a true convertible. However, pop-up sun roofs do not give an open air feeling. Rearwardly retracting sun roofs can only open the forward half of a passenger sedan roof because the sun roof must be stowed in the remaining half. Therefore retracting sun roofs are generally not used in two-seat sports cars. Some sports cars have used hard tops which are completely removable. Other sports cars have so-called "T-tops" which comprise glass roof sections which are completely removable from either side of a central, longitudinally extending roof beam. Removable hard top roofs and roof panels are inconvenient and cumbersome. Often the removable roof or roof panels take up too much space to be stored in the trunk of a sports car and must therefore be stored in a garage. This makes it impractical to convert to the open roof configuration while "on the road."
In automobiles having transparent roof panels, it is desirable to tint the same to shade the driver and passenger from direct sunlight when the panels are closed.
British Pat. No. 405,418 discloses a flexible fabric, metal or wood sliding roof panel for an auto. The roof panel slides in curved fashion to a retracted position within the side walls of the car body at all times. In the retracted position, the roof panel overlies the rear window of the car. Accordingly, the sliding roof panel has a glass panel insert which coincides with the rear window to allow rearward visibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,689 of Podolan et al. (assigned to GM) discloses a hard top roof having front and rear panels which slide into overlapping horizontal relation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,825 of Golde discloses another solid sun roof which retracts to a stored position within the car body sides and forward of the rear window.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,859 of Breitschwerdt et al. (assigned to Daimler-Benz) discloses a sports car with an upper body part including a roof and sidewalls which together are displaced rearwardly. The rear window cranks downwardly into a recessed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,983 of Hellriegel (assigned to Ford) discloses a plastic sandwich, retractable sun-roof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,440 of Podolan (assigned to GM) appears to be related to the same design as U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,689 above. The '440 patent also discloses a hard top with rearwardly slideable, overlapping panels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,977 of Fioravanti discloses a solid roof panel that rotates into overlapping relationship with the trunk lid so that the trunk can still be opened.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,405 of Kloppe et al. (assigned to Ford) discloses a sliding louvered roof for an auto.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,195 of Furukawa et al. (assigned to Suzuki) discloses clam shell side windows which rotate toward each other.
German Pat. No. 2723-996 discloses a roof panel that slides rearwardly of the roll bar and then drops down on top of the trunk to keep the rear view unobstructed.
German Pat. No. 1,455,459 discloses a completely detachable roof for an auto.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,672 assigned to Honda discloses a sliding roof member for an auto having a separate sunshade which slides along with the roof member when the same is retracted to open the roof opening. When the roof member is closed, the sunshade can be slid back and forth independent of the roof member. The roof member 13 is made of glass and the sunshade member 15 is made of an unspecified opaque material.
European patent application No. 0 101 322 of MGA Developments Limited discloses a sedan-type auto with a transparent roof panel that moves to a stored position in the trunk.
Japanese patent application No. 56-149213(A) of Fujimoto discloses an auto with a sun roof panel that slides into a horizontal stored position on the rear deck of the car body.